• The first soft-top Bristol • One of only circa 12 survivors of 20-or-so made • Left-hand drive • Delivered new in the UK • Restored in 2010 In 1946 the Bristol Aeroplane Company, finding itself with surplus capacity and skills, embarked on the manufacture of luxury cars having obtained the rights to BMW's automotive designs as part of Germany's post-WW2 reparations.

Thus it came about that the Bristol 400 was effectively a synthesis of three pre-war BMWs, with a chassis derived from that of the 326; the advanced 2.0-litre six-cylinder engine from the 328 sports car; and an aerodynamic bodyshell similar to that of the 327 coupé.

But Bristol did more than simply copy the work of its German counterparts; the application of aviation industry standards to its manufacture resulted in a car more refined and considerably better constructed than its Teutonic forbears.

With the introduction in 1948 of the 401 - the first of its exquisitely styled aerodynes - Bristol began to move away from ...